New York cranks up 1st large offshore wind farm in nation
America’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm is officially open, a long-awaited moment that helps pave the way for a succession of large wind farms.
Danish wind energy developer Ørsted and the utility Eversource built a 12-turbine wind farm called South Fork Wind 35 miles east of Montauk Point, New York.
Gov. Kathy Hochul went to Long Island on Thursday to announce that the turbines are delivering clean power to the local electric grid. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland attended. Hochul said they flipped the switch to turn on the future.
Achieving commercial scale is a turning point for the industry, but what’s next?
Experts say the nation needs a major buildout of this type of clean electricity to address climate change.
Offshore wind is central to both national and state plans to transition to a carbon-free electricity system.
The Biden administration has approved six commercial-scale offshore wind energy projects, and auctioned lease areas for offshore wind for the first time off the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico coasts. New York picked two more projects last month to power more than 1 million homes.
Hochul said the completion of South Fork shows that New York will pursue climate change solutions to save future generations from a world that otherwise could be dangerous. South Fork can generate 132 megawatts of offshore wind energy to power more than 70,000 homes.
With South Fork finished, Ørsted and Eversource are turning their attention to the work they will do offshore beginning this spring for a wind farm more than five times its size. Revolution Wind will be Rhode Island and Connecticut’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm, capable of powering more than 350,000 homes next year.
In New York, the state said last month that it would negotiate a contract with Ørsted and Eversource for an even larger wind farm, Sunrise Wind, to power 600,000 homes. The Norwegian company Equinor was picked for its Empire Wind 1 project to power more than 500,000 New York homes. Both aim to start providing power in 2026.
Ørsted, formerly DONG Energy, for Danish Oil and Natural Gas, started building wind farms off the coast of Denmark, the U.K. and Germany in 2008. The company sold off the North Sea oil and gas assets on which it had built its identity to focus on clean energy, becoming Ørsted. It’s now one of the biggest wind power developers.
The first U.S. offshore wind farm was supposed to be a project off the coast of Massachusetts known as Cape Wind. A Massachusetts developer proposed the project in 2001. It failed after years of local opposition and litigation.
Turbines began spinning off Rhode Island’s Block Island as a pilot project in 2016. But with just five of them, it’s not a commercial-scale wind farm.
The Biden administration wants enough offshore wind energy to power 10 million homes by 2030.